Aldi Süd: Is the first smart shopping cart coming soon?

Aldi Süd is pursuing an extremely exciting idea. The southern German division of the globally successful discounter would soon like to use smart shopping carts. First, a test is to show what possibilities the mobile undercarriages should be able to offer supermarkets and customers.

Amazon as a role model

Of course, Aldi Süd can by no means be seen as a pioneer with its trial run. After all, online mail order giant Amazon is already working to a similar concept. In particular, the so-called Go stores operate according to this principle. Instead of using traditional checkouts to track purchases, the store itself registers the products that are to be bought. In addition to cameras, other sensors are also used here, which work together to determine which products the customer has snatched up. It was probably only a matter of time before established supermarkets took a similar step. After all, they don’t want to be left behind by Amazon in their core discipline. Aldi Süd is now making a start by testing smart shopping carts. These operate according to a similar concept.

“Shopic” is in the lead

An isralian company called Shopic is behind the implementation of the smart idea. The biggest challenge here is the interaction of the sensors located in the mobile shopping basket. Cameras are primarily used here. To ensure that the customer doesn’t lose track of what’s in the basket and also has a way of checking it, the shopping cart also has an informative display. This shows, for example, which items are already in the cart. Payment at the end, however, is still very similar to the principle already familiar from payment at self-service checkouts. After all, you pass through a terminal with your shopping cart at the end, where the bill for the purchase is settled.

Just a small trial run

Of course, Aldi’s idea sounds extremely exciting and almost groundbreaking for discounters and other supermarkets. However, we have to put a small damper on you if you are now hot to try out one of the new shopping carts. After all, Aldi Süd has already ended its first attempt. Only customers who went “shopping” at Aldi Süd in Cologne, Mülheim were able to enjoy a bit of the discounter future. Aldi South itself would like to evaluate now first of all the collected customer opinions and draw from it its conclusions for the future.

Data protection plays a major role

Unlike the U.S. model in the form of Amazon, the issue of data protection plays a far greater role for Aldi Süd. After all, the discounter does not rely on its own accounts, but leaves the smart shopping carts free and quickly accessible. In addition, Aldi Süd’s concept seems to be a bit less complicated to implement. Unlike Amazon’s smart supermarkets, you don’t have to equip the premises with many different sensors and cameras first. All you need are the smart shopping carts and the terminals at the end. But the discounter should seriously consider replacing the terminals with a suitable app. Otherwise, there would be the threat of queues, which ultimately should not really provide more convenience for the customer.